WSBT

This is a great first station to work for, and I think everyone should disregard the negative review by the reporter. She also makes it way too obvious who she is.

That negative review makes some good points but is mostly false. WSBT has a lack of on air diversity, but then again it's Indiana. We do have a very diverse group of people working behind the scenes, but I doubt she ever cared to meet any of them. She was fired because she kept sharing confidential details about our daily news operations on her public social media and openly criticizing us in detail on those platforms if we didn't like her ideas that day. She also refused to take criticism and would get offended when changes were made to her scripts. I even saw her refuse those corrections and voice her pkg with her original script on several occasions. She would constantly miss the point of stories or force an angle that just wasn't there. She was once sent to cover a town hall on gun violence and came back with a cutesy story about a child asking the mayor his favorite food. Her firing had nothing to do with her race, she was just a bad employee and delusional. She was even given multiple warnings and chances to improve, and management spent extra time and resources working with her. Still, she always thought everyone was out to get her. Our news director was not shady at all or discreet with her performance issues with her. I would consider him one of the better bosses in this industry.

The station also does not hate Joshua Short or WNDU. We just dislike his famous black friday live shot because he made a mistake being on the wrong side of the mall. He also continues to ride that gimmick for going on 3 years now. Most people are friends with him and he regularly goes out for drinks with WSBT staff.

This is a great first station to work at. I personally believe their product is much better than many of the top 20 markets. They go above and beyond to train you and work with you to get you ready for a big market job. Executive Producer Jim Pinkerton is the best EP I have ever worked for. He sits down with every producer and reporter for hour long personal training sessions 3 times per year. He sets goals for you to work towards and really mentors you. I now realize everything he ever taught me was correct, and I have not seen any other EP's in my career with the knowledge that he has.

This station would be almost perfect except for it's owned by Sinclair. As a reporter this will not effect you, but as a Producer or Anchor this is completely soul crushing and ethically repugnant. They purchased the station in 2017 I believe. I started working there not too long after, and I saw almost every experienced journalist quit as soon as their contract was up. This station went from a 2nd or 3rd job to a starter market in the span of a year. Sinclair also has low pay so the people replacing these tenured journalists were kids directly out of college (the only ones willing to accept the pay and contract.)

This ultimately led to me quitting. I wanted to work and learn from experienced journalists. You're also forced to air their beyond right wing "must runs". Many of them genuinely have false or incredibly misleading information. These aren't even conservative pieces, they actively promote harmful conspiracy theories. I would always advise reporters to actually watch the rest of the shows they are in, so that they knew what they are representing. I would do my best to write intros for these stories that mitigated their damage. Many of the must run reporters are "journalists" fired from fox news for sexual harassment. As an anchor you will be forced to read the intros or worse, forced to star in the "P.O.W" style promos against fake news.

Every news employee (reporter, producer, management) is required to sign a contract. I have a family friend who is a corporate contract attorney and his direct words about my contract were, "this is worse than slavery." Basically the contract is poorly written and forces you to sign away all your rights while giving the company more rights. Currently all contracts have a clause against speaking negatively about the company, but I was one of the last few to not have that. The contract also waives your right to sue in court, and instead mandates a mediation process. You are not allowed to choose the mediator or the location. If you lose the mediation you are forced to pay all of Sinclair's legal costs. If you win Sinclair is not obliged to pay yours. You also are not allowed to quit but they can fire you at any time.

At the end of the day this is a good place to learn and start out, but not anywhere you will want to hang around too long. I loved my time working there and miss everyone. It's a great stepping stone to a larger market that does not have must runs or force you to sign a poorly written one sided contract.

Racial Discrimination, An Overall Toxic Work Environment

"I thought the W in WSBT stood for WHITE" - often said by South Bend viewers who are black. With the demographics of the city, you would think that the news room would reflect that, but they do everything to travel hours away ( i.e. to Michigan) to tell stories that don't affect people of color, as opposed to talking to people in their own backyard. The team HATES competitor WNDU anchor, Joshua Short who is a black man that went viral in 2017 for his Black Friday clip. They're only upset because they're barely #1 anymore since WNDU is more relatable with their diverse team, coverage and personalities on air. Editorial meetings are often spent bashing the competitors to drill into reporters heads to not enage with them even outside of work on their down time. John Haferkamp is a shady liar who doesn't care about the success or well-being of his reporters. When asked questions upfront about performance, he will tell them they are doing okay while planning their termination behind the scenes. He forces his team to create made up scenarios with no evidence to rid himself of talent who stand up to him. Very rarely are there people of color on the team, but when there are every few years, they're all treated horribly. He prides himself on operating a teaching station in a mid-market for students fresh out of college, but only allows mentorship for his favorite kids. Management follows his lead in joking about immigration and "ghetto" people. Their only audience is older white conservatives. It's Indiana so it makes sense, but in the future, their #1 rank is definitely going to be taken. They're opposed to any new talent being better than their favorite talents. Never open to creative control. Never given any opportunities at the anchor desk unless you're a favorite. This station is perfect if you're a young white reporter whose only ambitions are to jump to the Indianapolis market.

Honestly, go to WNDU. If you want a positive fun environment where you're not constantly put up against your coworkers by management, don't go to WSBT. The only good thing about that station is the look of the product on air and the cute dogs that come in on the morning show, but even they've barked at the team cause animals know evil.